Vine slump continues as Instagram popularity soars

It's less than two weeks since Facebook announced the inclusion of a video function in the popular photo-sharing app Instagram, but this has proved ample time in which to exert its authority over Twitter rival Vine.

Since its June 20 launch, Instagram videos have been shared more across Twitter than Vine content, a fact which is clearly slightly embarrassing for the latter. As data from Topsy analytics shows, it took less than a day for users to make their feelings known, with Vine shares nosediving as fans flocked to try Instagram's newest feature.

Within a day, Vine shares had dropped from over 2 million to just 1.2 million, and its number of daily shares has failed to reach a million since June 22. Meanwhile, Instagram has maintained a steady stream of daily Twitter shares, with numbers ranging from 1.4 million to 1.8 million.

How can Vine recover?

It seems that Vine appears to be facing an uphill task in its bid to be a serious competitor for Instagram. The Facebook-owned service already had a large fanbase in place before Vine came on the scene, and Instagram videos can be 15 seconds long, compared with just six for Vine.

Furthermore, data suggests that twice as many top 100 brands use Instagram to share video compared with Twitter's offering.

Vine has also come under fire for taking so long to produce an Android-compatible app, but it will be hoping to see some recovery now that this is available. Fans will also be able to use Vine on Kindle Fire devices from Friday, and the makers have promised even more new features in a bid to resuscitate its flagging fortunes.

Adrian Mursec, senior developer at theEword, said: "Instagram was always well placed to make the move into video content, but Vine will still feel it has much more to bring to the table. It will be intriguing to see what both sides come up with next in order to attract more users and hang on to existing ones."